Small Pairs Win Too

Many poker tournament winners got there playing small pairs and betting then right.  Pairs of threes, fives and sixes are seen winning many pots in TV tournaments.  Early in the tournament when the blinds are small, this type hand can win some big pots.  This can happen when the flop is set and the pair turns into three of a kind.  This hand if that happens can set up an expensive pot for a big pair or two pair.  If the player holding the small pair slow plays the hand hoping the opponents make a big pair or two pair and he catches the third card for the set this sets the trap.  This can make a lot of money early in the tournament and allow the player to be more aggressive due to the larger chip stack

Negreanu and Hansen play these kinds of hands all the time.   If you see them playing a hand like this, watch how they manage their bets.  This can be a lesson in real time on how to bet the hand for maximum profit.

If the flop does not help the player, they should bail out if the betting gets too stiff. [Read][more...]

Poker Stories Bad Beats Calls of Courage

Poker playing and the history of poker go hand-in-hand.  Poker stories are generated every day somewhere in the world.  The story could come from a major tournament or from a weekly home game.  Many stories are about a bad beat or a miracle draw that a player pulled off or was the hapless victim of the luck of the deal. Poker stories are part and parcel of playing the game. The variables that can happen in any given hand can give such unlikely results that players can have the toes curled with the deal of a card.  Later when discussing the events of the game the players involved, in such a hand, will tell stories that are amazing in their dissimilarity.  Unless you were a witness to the hand in question you would not realize that they were discussing the same hand.  It comes down to a mater of perspective from the winner or the loser of the hand.

Bad Beats are constant grist for the mill as they are a remembered hurt.  The winner may well forget the incident.  The loser may remember the hand the rest of their life. [Read][more...]

Better Players can be Bluffed

The one rule of poker that new players have a difficult time learning is that it is not a sin to lay down the winning hand after the river card is dealt.  Players who never do this are not yet as good a player as they can be or should be. Good players can be bluffed out of pots and made to lay down a winning hand.  In fact sometimes it is easier to bluff a very good player than it is to bluff the table calling station that never folds a hand.  Good players will replay the betting in their mind and come to a conclusion of whether they think they have the winning hand or not.  If the bluff was carried out right, the good player may well fold a hand that would win.

No less a player than Daniel Negreanu has stated this fact.  His idea is do not do it too often, but never become a calling station all the time.  If this becomes a tendency it will make it harder to book winning sessions.  Players that compute pot odds all the time are given a slight edge in this situation as the odds enter into their calculations about the hand they hold. [Read][more...]

How to get out of a losing session

The only way to get out of losing poker session is to start winning.  This is a simple answer to a serious problem that every poker player faces.  When you are coming in second best in every big pot, this situation can become very disturbing and with some players make them go on tilt.  A player on tilt loses perspective and tries to hard to recover the losses.  This causes a player to make riskier plays and therefore end up losing more money.

An experienced player will set back, even take a short break and clear his mind to continue to play with even more severe calculations of the chances of winning .the pot.  He will let the cards speak to him when the losing streak has ended.  When the cards turn after a bad run, they sometimes go on an unbelievable rush.

If this happens push the devil out of it as the losing hands are behind you and the winners are flying to you from the dealer.  When you are even or a slight winner, think about whet you accomplished by staying calm and not on tilt.  This is one of the hardest parts of poker for a player to come to grips with. [Read][more...]